This invention relates to an apparatus for automatically imprinting markings on the so-called bombs, or steel or like metal cylinders for compressed gases, among other metal-made cylindrical articles.
As is well known, steel cylinders are widely used as containers for compressed gases such as those of oxygen, chlorine, hydrogen, and carbon dioxide. Such steel cylinders are required to be clearly engraved with markings giving such information as the contents, date of production, serial number, and name of the manufacturer. This marking operation has heretofore been the handiwork of highly skilled workmen, performed at the expense of substantial time and labor because the information must be stamped on rounded surfaces of hard material. Moreover, as an inevitable result of manual operation, the characters stamped tend to be of irregular arrangement and uneven depth.